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On Sunday 28 November 2004 09:33 pm, elefino wrote:
On Sunday 28 November 2004 15:30, BandiPat wrote:
Kevin, The time you spend wasting a call & email to MS controlled companies could be better spent in creating exactly what you want in a database or spreadsheet program on your own computer! You could easily setup the forms, the data would be saved and maintained yearly and that would end need for the QuickTax you've been using.
Yah but . . . QuickTax and the other major tax programs do more than just give you a pretty form to populate a database or spreadsheet. The good ones give you a tax accountant in a box. They research the tax laws/regs, including all the changes/updates for the current year, and often find stuff, and make suggestions that you might not have recognized (unless you happen to be a tax lawyer/accountant yourself).
If it weren't for those advantages, we might as well just fill out the paper forms and use snail-mail.
That'd be the major reason why nobody has done a real tax-return program as an open source project. Coding the interface and spreadsheet functions is no big deal for an experienced programmer or three. The hard part is to create the modules for each separate country (and province or state within each country) to reflect all the tax rules and to take advantage of all possible deductions and loopholes.
There are lots of open-source programmers, but hardly any open-source accountants and tax lawyers. :-)
I was just hoping that somebody knew of something.
Kevin =============
Ok, one point to make please! Just reply to the list on these mails, I ended up getting about 3 mails exactly the same from you! We are all members of the list so you only need to send one mail. Don't do a reply-all when you reply. If you are using kmail, just press the "L" key! Your points are valid Kevin, but ultimately only weak excuses. Anyone that chooses to create their own setup in a spreadsheet or database doesn't do it for the forms, but to get their taxes done electronically without all the pencil & paper work. I think the only reason noone has done a program yet is because nobody has taken the time or had the interest to do it. I think you might be surprised at how many tax lawyers & accountants use open source, but I'm guessing their lives stay busy enough without adding programming to it too! ;o) I've seen and used a spreadsheet setup before done in Lotus 1-2-3, but doubt I still have it around. I'll look, but to make a point, it provided everything that the "polished" tax programs provided without the cost. I think I even used that on the Amiga computer at the time. :o) Thanks Lee -- --- KMail v1.7.1 --- SuSE Linux Pro v9.2 --- Registered Linux User #225206 "Don't let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!"